London ESB Ale Yeast - Lallemand

This English-style ale yeast from Lallemand is the model of reliable fermentation performance and modest ester production. London ESB exhibits light flavors and aromas of fruit and ester, but is predominantly neutral in character, allowing the malt and hops of the beer to shine through. It's perfect for your Extra Special Bitter, but may also be used in many authentic heritage UK styles like Pale Ale, Bitter and Mild. Use London ESB to make Ciders as well!

BEST ANSWER:Hello, thank you for your question. Reading the spec sheets, the Wyeast liquid form is a highly flocculant strain compared to the low flocculant Lallemand dry yeast. They will each attenuate about the same, however the Lallemand is a little more alcohol tolerant. They are similar in producing slight estery malt forward beers.

BEST ANSWER:Hello, thank you for your question. Reading the spec sheets, the Wyeast liquid form is a highly flocculant strain compared to the low flocculant Lallemand dry yeast. They will each attenuate about the same, however the Lallemand is a little more alcohol tolerant. They are similar in producing slight estery malt forward beers.

Because this yeast is a low attenuator, it is important to keep the mash temperature relatively low. It worked well for a best bitter. Although the FG was still a bit higher than optimal, the beer didn't taste sweet. I might use it again during summer when I don't like to order liquid yeast.

I rehydrated per instructions, and in 12 hours my air lock sounded like morse code on speed.

Check the technical data sheet before picking this yeast. Other have posted poor reviews because the beer didn't dry out. This yeast strain does not eat maltotriose, which is present in wort in an average 10-15% of all malt worts. If you have a big OG, you have no hope of getting under 1.020. Just how this strain behaves.

So, average 4 stars. 5 for it works, 3 for "it's fine". It did the job but wasn't blown away by the flavor. My porter called for "Fuller's strain" so that's why I picked this.

I haven't figured out how to make this yeast work properly. Last batch I used yeast nutrient and aerated the wort, but it stopped at 63% apparent attenuation (1.060=>10.22). Way too sweet, obviously. Maybe it works better at lower starting gravities, or maybe there is some other trick to it. It does give the flavor profile of an ESB, but you can get pretty close to that with another English yeast and get better attenuation.

Using the Lallemand yeast pitching calculator, I determined I needed to pitch 22g of London ESB yeast into my wort (OG=1.070). Fermentation started well but stalled at 1.030 after 7 days. Piched 11 g of S-04 and was able to get it down to 1.025 after 14 days. Not real happy about it. Beer flavor is good but obviously sweet.